CMJ Reviews

US$ 599.00 (educational rate is US$ 299.00); available from Sibelius Software Ltd., The Old Toy Factory, 20-22 City North, Fonthill Road, London N4 3HN, UK; telephone (+44) 800-458-3111; fax (+44) 20-7561-7888; electronic mail infoUK@sibelius.com; in the US, contact Sibelius USA, Inc, 1407 Oakland Boulevard, Suite 103, Walnut Creek, California 94596, USA; telephone (+1) 888-4-SIBELIUS; fax (+1) 972-713-6327; electronic mail infoUSA@sibelius.com; World Wide Web www.sibelius.com

Reviewed by S. Lyn Goeringer
Seattle, Washington, USA

[ Editor's Note: This is a product update for the Sibelius 2 Notation Software review by Tae Hong Park found in 27:3 ]

Late in 2003, Sibelius 3 music notation software was released. As always, the program features on simplicity and ease of use. This review will focus on some of the more significant changes to the program, such as the new set-up dialog, changes in operation procedures, and new playback features. To test and review the new version, a Macintosh 1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 Powerbook with 512 MB DDR SDRAM, running OS X 10.3.2 was used.

Many changes have come about with Version 3. The first one the user encounters is within the “Quick Start” dialog, which appears immediately as one starts the program. The items incorporated within the Quick Start dialog used to be located solely under the File menu in the program toolbar. The options are now located in both the File menu as well as the Quick Start dialog box. You now have the option of opening a recent file (which has a drop box which displays the last ten files viewed), opening a different file, opening a MIDI file, beginning a new score, or scanning in printed music using the Neutraton PhotoScore software bundled with Sibelius (or the upgraded version which can be purchased separately). This new, additional step in the start up procedure allows the user quicker access to whatever file needed, or to the New Score dialog box, which opens when you click on the New button.

Utilizing the New Score dialog can be beneficial. With its breakdown of five separate windows, presented in a slide style presentation, one can easily set up a score without much effort. The new score dialog operates on the same principals as a document wizard in a word processing program, and guides you through several options to create the basic appearance and set up of your score. These options include: the manuscript paper style, the instruments, the style of music notation (including handwritten or jazz), and general font choice for written text as well. This latter option is important, as changing the font once the score is set up can be difficult and non-intuitive. Tempo can be chosen next, as well as time signatures, beaming style, and rest groupings, along with other basic set-up procedures. The final dialog offered in the five windows for quick set-up is Score Info, which allows you to insert automatically into the text the title of the work, composer/songwriter, lyricist, copyright date, along with options for other text. Most of the options given in the New Score Dialog window can still be created using the File menu and other dialog boxes. This dialog is especially useful when first learning the changes in Version 3, as it saves you the time of finding where some of the dialog windows have been moved from previous editions.

Several of the items in drop-down menus have changed names, or have been moved to other headers. The most obvious in this is the new House Style menu, which no longer includes the engraving rules. Engraving Rules now has its own heading under the House Styles menu drop box.

There have also been positive changes in the creation of shortcut keys. The dialog window is much easier to access now, as it is in the Preferences section under the File menu. The new process allows you to change shortcuts one by one instead of in large groupings. This can be helpful when using an unusual feature that needs to be repeated often, particularly when dealing with advanced or avant-garde notation devices that do not already have shortcut keys assigned to them. The Customization feature also comes in handy as some older shortcuts are no longer available, allowing you to adjust the commands to suit your needs and habits. There are many shortcuts already taken, so be prepared to be flexible in your choice of shortcut keys.

One of the most exciting features in Sibelius 3 is the ability to create audio files and burn them to compact disc from within the program utilizing Kontakt Player Silver or Kontakt Player Gold from Native Instruments (www.native-instruments.com). Kontakt Player Silver is included with Version 3. Both Players are memory intensive and quite demanding on your computer system, as they utilize samples of instruments to generate the sound output. To increase efficiency it is possible to lower the sampling rate in the Devices dialog, although this may compromise the sound quality. The Kontakt Player can also be used while composing. The sound output, while better quality than General MIDI voices, can slow down the program a little bit while sample soundfiles load.

Other new features in Sibelius 3 include the ability to add color to any object in the score, as well as to highlight items in color that may be of importance. This can be useful to students, teachers, composers, and conductors, to point out trouble areas in a score, and so forth. An alternative use for the coloration would be to add color to portions of graphic scores that are created in Sibelius (though it is still necessary to import graphic-intensive scores to a graphics program for more complex ideograms).

While there are many useful new features in Version 3, one of the most troubling for me is the new ability to smooth the appearance of the score on the screen. This creates several problems. It can cause delay and error messages in the playback mode, as well as make some of the line features disappear from the screen until the smooth function is turned down or off. Other problems encountered with this function on the Macintosh platform include blurring of the image on the screen. None of these affect printing: lines that are not visible will be present in printing, and the blurry view will not be present in print. Unfortunately, I am unsure how this problem may affect Windows users, although the User’s Manual suggests that the blurriness does not occur in Windows operating systems.

As always, Sibelius has worked toward releasing a product that is easy to use from the outset. Continuing to create an atmosphere of comfort for the user has resulted in the creation of a notation program that comes closer and closer to resembling word processing software. As it is already great for producing very nice traditional scores, Sibelius continues to slowly add to the concepts of non-traditional scoring. It is still necessary to save the work as a graphic file to import to a graphics editor for complex graphic scoring, but the addition of color among some of the new symbols makes it more appealing to composers who are more graphically inclined. The ability to create audio files of scores also adds flexibility to composers who must share audio output quickly with others. The comfort, compatibility, and flexibility of Sibelius are still its best features.

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	Sibelius 3 Notation Software (product update)
	US$ 599.00 (educational rate is US$ 299.00); available from Sibelius Software Ltd., The Old Toy Factory, 20-22 City North, Fonthill Road, London N4 3HN, UK; telephone (+44) 800-458-3111; fax (+44) 20-7561-7888; electronic mail infoUK@sibelius.com; in the US, contact Sibelius USA, Inc, 1407 Oakland Boulevard, Suite 103, Walnut Creek, California 94596, USA; telephone (+1) 888-4-SIBELIUS; fax (+1) 972-713-6327; electronic mail infoUSA@sibelius.com; World Wide Web www.sibelius.com Reviewed by S. Lyn Goeringer Seattle, Washington, USA [ Editor's Note: This is a product update for the Sibelius 2 Notation Software review by Tae Hong Park found in 27:3 ] Late in 2003, Sibelius 3 music notation software was released. As always, the program features on simplicity and ease of use. This review will focus on some of the more significant changes to the program, such as the new set-up dialog, changes in operation procedures, and new playback features. To test and review the new version, a Macintosh 1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 Powerbook with 512 MB DDR SDRAM, running OS X 10.3.2 was used. Many changes have come about with Version 3. The first one the user encounters is within the “Quick Start” dialog, which appears immediately as one starts the program. The items incorporated within the Quick Start dialog used to be located solely under the File menu in the program toolbar. The options are now located in both the File menu as well as the Quick Start dialog box. You now have the option of opening a recent file (which has a drop box which displays the last ten files viewed), opening a different file, opening a MIDI file, beginning a new score, or scanning in printed music using the Neutraton PhotoScore software bundled with Sibelius (or the upgraded version which can be purchased separately). This new, additional step in the start up procedure allows the user quicker access to whatever file needed, or to the New Score dialog box, which opens when you click on the New button. Utilizing the New Score dialog can be beneficial. With its breakdown of five separate windows, presented in a slide style presentation, one can easily set up a score without much effort. The new score dialog operates on the same principals as a document wizard in a word processing program, and guides you through several options to create the basic appearance and set up of your score. These options include: the manuscript paper style, the instruments, the style of music notation (including handwritten or jazz), and general font choice for written text as well. This latter option is important, as changing the font once the score is set up can be difficult and non-intuitive. Tempo can be chosen next, as well as time signatures, beaming style, and rest groupings, along with other basic set-up procedures. The final dialog offered in the five windows for quick set-up is Score Info, which allows you to insert automatically into the text the title of the work, composer/songwriter, lyricist, copyright date, along with options for other text. Most of the options given in the New Score Dialog window can still be created using the File menu and other dialog boxes. This dialog is especially useful when first learning the changes in Version 3, as it saves you the time of finding where some of the dialog windows have been moved from previous editions. Several of the items in drop-down menus have changed names, or have been moved to other headers. The most obvious in this is the new House Style menu, which no longer includes the engraving rules. Engraving Rules now has its own heading under the House Styles menu drop box. There have also been positive changes in the creation of shortcut keys. The dialog window is much easier to access now, as it is in the Preferences section under the File menu. The new process allows you to change shortcuts one by one instead of in large groupings. This can be helpful when using an unusual feature that needs to be repeated often, particularly when dealing with advanced or avant-garde notation devices that do not already have shortcut keys assigned to them. The Customization feature also comes in handy as some older shortcuts are no longer available, allowing you to adjust the commands to suit your needs and habits. There are many shortcuts already taken, so be prepared to be flexible in your choice of shortcut keys. One of the most exciting features in Sibelius 3 is the ability to create audio files and burn them to compact disc from within the program utilizing Kontakt Player Silver or Kontakt Player Gold from Native Instruments (www.native-instruments.com). Kontakt Player Silver is included with Version 3. Both Players are memory intensive and quite demanding on your computer system, as they utilize samples of instruments to generate the sound output. To increase efficiency it is possible to lower the sampling rate in the Devices dialog, although this may compromise the sound quality. The Kontakt Player can also be used while composing. The sound output, while better quality than General MIDI voices, can slow down the program a little bit while sample soundfiles load. Other new features in Sibelius 3 include the ability to add color to any object in the score, as well as to highlight items in color that may be of importance. This can be useful to students, teachers, composers, and conductors, to point out trouble areas in a score, and so forth. An alternative use for the coloration would be to add color to portions of graphic scores that are created in Sibelius (though it is still necessary to import graphic-intensive scores to a graphics program for more complex ideograms). While there are many useful new features in Version 3, one of the most troubling for me is the new ability to smooth the appearance of the score on the screen. This creates several problems. It can cause delay and error messages in the playback mode, as well as make some of the line features disappear from the screen until the smooth function is turned down or off. Other problems encountered with this function on the Macintosh platform include blurring of the image on the screen. None of these affect printing: lines that are not visible will be present in printing, and the blurry view will not be present in print. Unfortunately, I am unsure how this problem may affect Windows users, although the User’s Manual suggests that the blurriness does not occur in Windows operating systems. As always, Sibelius has worked toward releasing a product that is easy to use from the outset. Continuing to create an atmosphere of comfort for the user has resulted in the creation of a notation program that comes closer and closer to resembling word processing software. As it is already great for producing very nice traditional scores, Sibelius continues to slowly add to the concepts of non-traditional scoring. It is still necessary to save the work as a graphic file to import to a graphics editor for complex graphic scoring, but the addition of color among some of the new symbols makes it more appealing to composers who are more graphically inclined. The ability to create audio files of scores also adds flexibility to composers who must share audio output quickly with others. The comfort, compatibility, and flexibility of Sibelius are still its best features.